U.S. Unlucky in Early Matchups for World Cup

The path to the second stage of the World Cup tournament for the United States soccer team, expected to be difficult, became even more so after the final draw here Sunday.

The U.S. team was drawn into a group that includes Switzerland, Romania and Colombia, teams ranked 12th, 13th and 21st, respectively, in the world.

The United States, ranked 22nd in the world but the seeded team in the group by virtue of being the host country for the World Cup, was hoping for a draw that might include a lower-ranked South American team such as No. 59 Bolivia or a European opponent such as No. 39 Greece. A maximum of three teams, and a minimum of two, come out of each group and advance to the single-elimination round of 16, also called the second stage.

The real power in the U.S. group may be Colombia, which was impressive in South American qualifying rounds, was unbeaten in all of 1992 in 19 games, and is probably much better than its world ranking.

“When they came out of the bowl in our group, it made for a long hour after that,” said Alan Rothenberg of Los Angeles, chairman of World Cup ‘94, the tournament’s organizing committee. Rothenberg was part of the 90-minute ESPN final draw show that was done live here Sunday and telecast to an estimated 500 million people worldwide.

The toughest pairing coming out of the draw was the group that included the seeded Italian team, plus Ireland, Norway and Mexico. Rothenberg called it the “Group of Death.” All are traditional soccer powers, and Mexico’s inclusion in that group spoiled hopes of World Cup organizers that the team would be headquartered in Dallas, a more geographically favorable site for the Mexicans. Instead, they will play in the group headquartered in New York City.

The tournament will start with defending champion Germany playing Bolivia in Chicago on June 17. Other venues, in addition to Pasadena, New York (the New Jersey Meadowlands) and Chicago, are Orlando, Fla., Washington, Boston (Foxboro, Mass.), Detroit (Pontiac, Mich.), Dallas and San Francisco (Palo Alto).

The first U.S. tournament game will be against Switzerland on June 18 in Detroit, followed by games June 22 against Colombia and June 26 against Romania, both at the Rose Bowl. The other games at the Rose Bowl in the first stage (the first three rounds) are Colombia-Romania on June 18 and Cameroon-Sweden on June 19.

The draw gave a headquarters city to each of the six seeded teams and their respective groups. Group A and the United States is headquartered in Pasadena, Group B and Brazil in Palo Alto, Group C and Germany in Chicago, Group D and Argentina in Boston, Group E and Italy in New York, and Group F and Belgium in Orlando.